Violence against Alawites was enormous in March, when government-backed forces and some security forces carried out a massacre in the Tartus and Latakia Governorates, killing in excess of 1,300 Alawites, mostly civilians. The violence has lingered since then, but hadn’t reached the same fevered pitch seen then.
The situation may be worsening this week, however, after weekend violence against an Alawite neighborhood in Homs led the religious minority’s leadership to organize major protests in their homelands of Tartus and Latakia, and once again pro-government militias are out in force cracking down on them.
In the Alawite-heavy neighborhood of Al-Raml Al-Shamali in Latakia city, militia groups attacked Alawite shops, residences and vandalized cars, with reports that the gunmen were screaming abusive phrases against the Alawites in the area.
Demonstrators pack the streets in Latakia | Image from SOHR
And once again, the security forces not only weren’t trying to stop those attacks, but appear to be carrying out some of their own, with shootings reported against the Alawites taking part in the protests in the city.
The Alawite leaders have pushed the UN Security Council to do something about violence in their neighborhoods, and Supreme Islamic Alawite Council leader Ghazal urged protests to convey they desire to see an end to ethnic cleansing across Syria.
The statements also called for Syria to revisit federalism and political decentralization, something that multiple religious and ethnic minority groups have called for in recent months, including the Kurds in the northeast and the Druze in southwestern Suwayda.
The ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Islamist faction with historic ties to al-Qaeda, has insisted on heavy centralization, though they have also promised an inclusive, unifying government. The US has backed the HTS, insisting “federalism doesn’t work.”
In what is likely an attempt to rebrand the latest anti-Alawite violence, the HTS announced today that they are launching an anti-ISIS military operation in Latakia Governorate. Though ISIS has been a problem at times nationwide, they have rarely been present in Latakia, and all recent reporting has ISIS’ recent focus much farther east, in Deir Ezzor.
